State Court of Appeals Affirms California State University’s Property
Rights to the CSU Name

(June 19, 2003) The Court of Appeal of the State of California has issued
a ruling that affirms the California State University’s right to
protect its name and derivative names of the 23 campuses from commercial
use without the university’s permission.

The state court’s Second Appellate District, in San Luis Obispo
County, overturned a lower court decision regarding a local retailer who
was selling unlicensed merchandise bearing the name Cal Poly—the
abbreviated name of the California Polytechnic State University, one of
CSU’s 23 campuses.

The appellate court instructed the lower court to issue an injunction
against Bello’s Sporting Goods to cease using the name of the university
for commercial purposes.

In its statement, the appellate court said that “Bello’s has
no constitutional right to commercially exploit the value of the university’s
hard-won reputation.”

“We’re very pleased that the appellate court agreed with us--and
the California Legislature--that our name is an asset in which we have
important property rights,” said Christine Helwick, CSU’s
general counsel. “The court has affirmed our right to protect the
name of the university and its campuses from inappropriate use.”

The ruling has relevance for all 23 CSU campuses and other institutions
as well. Helwick said that Caltech, a private school, felt strongly enough
about the issue to file a brief with the court in support of Cal Poly’s
position.

The Legislature had enacted a statute in 1982 protecting the names of
the CSU schools and their abbreviations. This law was later amended to
clarify that the name “Cal Poly” is included in that protection.

“It is the unlicensed use of the name that we are trying to prevent,”
CSU’s trial attorney LeRoy Anderson explained. During settlement
discussions before trial, Cal Poly offered to license the use of its name
to Bello’s, which would have allowed the retailer to continue selling
merchandise with the Cal Poly name at a profit. But Bello's rejected that
offer.

Anderson said that Cal Poly also offered to purchase the Cal Poly merchandise
at market price to prevent Bello’s from suffering any financial
burden. But the retailer rejected that offer as well.v The school never
asked for any monetary damages from Bello’s. “Our objective
is not to hurt local business, but to protect the right to control use
of our own name,” Anderson said.